This article was originally published in 2020 and has been updated to reflect current context around livestream spending and digital payments.
A family was able to reclaim most of the $20,000 their teenage son secretly spent in Twitch donations, subscriptions, and bits.
The teen’s mother discovered $19,870.94 in charges made to a debit card between June 14 and June 30, saying that “years of savings” disappeared in just 17 days. The donations were made to several popular Twitch streamers through subscriptions, Bits, and direct contributions.
Wanting to remain anonymous to protect her family, the mother told Dot Esports that almost all of the money was eventually credited back to their account after she contacted Xsolla, a payment service company partnered with Twitch.
Using Xsolla’s online chat feature, she received adjustment credits for most of the transactions under the condition that the Twitch account be permanently blocked to prevent future unauthorized charges. She later shared a screengrab of her bank statement showing thousands of dollars in withdrawal adjustment credits from Xsolla.
“I am so relieved to have the money restored to my account and let the nightmare end,” she said. “At this point, it’s within a few hundred dollars, and I am happy to have received what I did, and am not going to pursue the difference.”
The mother said she learned to contact Xsolla after another parent reached out following a now-deleted Reddit post that gained significant attention on the Twitch subreddit. That parent had gone through a similar experience and was also able to receive credits through the payment processor.
Several others contacted her after seeing the post, including “a couple of young people” who admitted they had taken money from their parents’ accounts and severely damaged their relationships as a result.
“I heard and felt the pain from those kids, now adults, who shared their stories with me so I wouldn’t make the same mistake,” she said. “I listened to them. I realized that although what he had done was bad, losing the money was not worth losing my child.”
While she was finally able to get her funds back, it certainly wasn’t easy. She said “hitting a brick wall with Twitch” when trying to get her money back “was the most frustrating thing of all.”
“The fact that no one would respond, and there was no way to speak with anyone was horrible,” she said. “That was probably the worst.”
The mother said she repeatedly tried to contact Twitch for help but never received a response. The Twitch account associated with the donations was eventually shut down, which she said caused transaction information to be lost.
She also contacted the Consumer Protection Division and her bank, but was told there was little that could be done unless she was willing to press charges against her son.
Why this story still matters
The case also highlights a broader issue with digital spending platforms that fall outside traditional financial regulation. While livestreaming services process billions of dollars each year, they are not held to the same consumer protection standards as other online industries.
By comparison, regulated esports betting platforms in many regions are typically required to implement age verification, spending limits, and responsible-use tools designed to prevent excessive or unauthorized spending. These safeguards aim to reduce harm before the money is lost – rather than relying on refunds after the fact, as was the case here.
Unlike credit cards, debit transactions often lack strong consumer protections, making refunds for digital purchases far more difficult, particularly when the spender is a family member rather than a fraudster.
As more families link debit cards directly to gaming and streaming platforms, financial risk becomes immediate. Funds are withdrawn instantly, leaving little opportunity for chargebacks or intervention once spending escalates. A 2022 LendingTree survey of more than 1,000 parents found that nearly 46% had experienced unapproved bank card use by children under 18.
As for the family in this story, the son is “remorseful,” the mother said, and is now going to counseling. He’s also limited to one hour of monitored daily playtime, with the stipulation that he must do positive activities, get exercise, and interact with the family in a positive way.
“This was a tough time for our family,” she said, “but hopefully we will all grow from this and be a stronger family.”
While this family was able to recover most of the money, similar situations don’t always end the same way. As digital spending becomes more common across livestreaming and gaming, stories like this show how quickly things can spiral.
